In my earlier filed Australian Patent No. 756760 entitled “Improvements in and relating to grain augers and the like”, there is disclosed a safety guard device for fitment at the intake end of the auger in the form of a soft pliable tubular extension sleeve arranged to encircle at least a portion of the intake flighting, the sleeve being attachable to the lower or intake end of the auger casing which surrounds the main drive shaft and its helical flighting. Although this arrangement is still considered quite satisfactory further developments have been made in order to simplify the construction of the safety guard in order to make it more economical to manufacture and more suited to the purpose for which it is designed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved form of a safety guard arrangement for a material conveying auger which is simple in construction, economical in manufacture, can be readily fitted to an existing auger, and which, even further reduces the risk of serious injury or damage by engagement of a person's limb or a foreign object with the exposed intake portion of the auger intake flight.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved safety guard arrangement for an auger at its intake end and which is designed so that the extent of exposed portion of the intake flighting can be conveniently varied by an operator to in turn control the rate of intake of grain (or any other material) at the intake end.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an improved safety clutch mechanism for the intake end of an auger assembly which is housed wholly within the tubular shaft of an auger intake section and which enables the intake flighting, in the event of it being damaged to be readily replaced without disturbing the clutch mechanism.